NEIP to provide online market access to 7,000 entrepreneurs

Director of Business Support of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), Franklin Owusu-Karikari has disclosed that some 7,000 entrepreneurs across the country will soon gain access to two online portals to enhance their market access and businesses.

According to him, the two online portals, which are the ‘’NEIP e-Mall’’ and ‘’NEIP Ghana Online Mall’’ will be launched on October 5.

The portals will provide entrepreneurs under the Presidential Business Support programme, a platform to showcase their clothing, footwear, food and drinks, building supplies, jewelry and accessories.

Owusu-Karikari in an interview with Goldstreet Business also revealed an application software named ‘Oze’ has been developed and will be made available on Android to allow entrepreneurs monitor and track the financials of their various businesses.

‘’By the close of next week, we will be installing this application on the phones of all these beneficiaries and entrepreneurs that trained with us to help them monitor all their financials, make payments and gain access to local and foreign markets,’’ he explained.

He said the software application will enable the NEIP and its incubation and training hubs to monitor progress of the beneficiaries under the first batch of recipients of the Presidential Business Support programme.

Earlier this year, some 54 incubation hubs were established across all ten regions of the country by the Ministry of Business Development to offer business advisory services, mentorship and funding to entrepreneurs.

According to Owusu-Karikari, NEIP is currently in the process of disbursing seed grants to some 1,350 entrepreneurs under the first batch of the Presidential Business Support Programme.

President Akufo-Addo in August this year awarded these beneficiaries with seed grants ranging between GHS10,000 to GHS100,000 to enhance their businesses.

The grants will serve as loans to be paid within three years while the businesses are expected to create some 30,000 direct and several indirect jobs within a year.

The NEIP Business Support programme forms part of government’s agenda under the Ministry of Business Development to support unemployed Ghanaian youth with training, funding and mentorship to establish their own businesses.